Monday, 2 April 2012

Football and the Falklands never far apart

With 2012 marking the 30th anniversary of the Falklands War, tensions are rising on both the political and sporting fronts. As history shows, this is not a new development...

Monday
2nd April marks the 30th anniversary of the beginning of
the Falklands War between Britain and Argentina in 1982. The past few months
have seen diplomatic tensions rise between the respective governments over the
sovereignty of the islands in the South Atlantic, oil exploration rights, the
dispatch of HMS Dauntless and even the posting of Prince William to the
Falklands as a search-and-rescue pilot.

Yet
one of the more inflammatory gestures was perceived to be the naming of the
2012 edition of the Argentine First Division as the Crucero General Belgrano Primera Division, invoking the famous
name of the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano, sunk by British torpedoes
during the war with the loss of 323 Argentine crew (almost half of Argentine
losses during the conflict).

Whilst
it is true that each season sees the Argentina Football Association (AFA) go
though the formality of bestowing official names on competitions (recent
examples include figures such as Rene Favaloro or Nestor Kirchner), this was
widely viewed as a controversial move ahead of such a significant anniversary
of the Falklands War. Argentine top-flight club Lanus also entered the debate
by weaving an image of the disputed islands into their first-team strip.

Such
headlines are unsurprising. As history shows, football is never far away from
the issues surrounding the Falkland Islands.

1982

Indeed
the first action of the Falklands War in 1982 was the eviction of Argentine
scrap metal workers from South Georgia by Royal Marines of HMS Endurance
stationed on the Falklands. The last act of these troops before leaving was in
fact to win the annual football ‘Shield’ of the Islands, a tournament that
often featured sides comprised of Argentine workers.

As the fighting intensified in the Falklands, tensions rose around football. Source: neonbubble

As
the war took its course in 1982, it was impossible for football and politics
not to collide, with a real possibility of the Home Nations (England, Scotland
and Northern Ireland had all qualified) withdrawing from the World Cup in
Spain. While Argentine fans unfurled banners stating, “England must leave the
Malvinas” during a friendly against the Soviet Union, Tottenham Hotspur’s
Argentine midfielder Ossie Ardiles (whose pilot cousin Lt. Jose Ardiles was
killed during the campaign) was booed by English fans and subsequently moved on
loan to Paris St-Germain. Stockport County even abandoned their blue-and-white
Argentina-inspired strip on the grounds that it “hardly seems appropriate,
given the current circumstances”.

There
was serious debate about the Home Nations’ participation in the World Cup,
particularly following World Cup hosts Spain abstaining in the United Nations
vote on the war. BBC Panorama ran a poll asking the public whether Britain’s
football teams should compete, while questions were asked within Cabinet as to
whether a potential second round meeting between Scotland and Argentina might
be allowed to go ahead. Yet Prime Minister Thatcher was adamant that the
nations compete, regardless of whether a meeting with Argentina in the latter
stages would be politically difficult. In a speech to the Commons she stated
her “belief that a good showing by the
England team in Spain will prove an excellent fillip for the servicemen in the
Falklands”.

Beyond the War

"It was as if we had beaten a country, not just a football team...Although we had said before the game that football had nothing to do with the Malvinas war, we knew they had killed a lot of Argentine boys there, killed them like little birds. And this was revenge."

Diego Maradona

Between
the end of the war in 1982 and the recent heightened tensions, there were other
occasions when football and the Falklands have become entwined, the 1986 World
Cup quarter-final being the most famous, as referenced by Maradona. As former
international Roberto Perfumo declared, “In
1986, winning that game against England was enough. Winning the World Cup was
secondary for us. Beating England was our real aim”.

In 1999 it was the turn of a little-known footballer named Martyn Clarke to stoke the tensions. Clarke became the first Falkland Islander to play football for an Argentine club, when he was brought over from Port Stanley to train with Boca Juniors. He was quickly the focus of mass media attention and spent his first evening eating pizza with Maradona, who famously let him use his mobile phone to call home. Clarke was the son of a Royal Marine who had served in the Falklands War, and his move provoked much consternation back home, while he was arguably used as a political pawn by Boca (in particular by Esteban Cichello, a friend of Maradona, who first spotted him), being sent on loan to two lower-league Argentine clubs.

A lack of direct competition on the football field in 2012 (Argentina have failed to qualify for the London Olympics) means the 30th anniversary may not be marked by a similar story. However, this is not to say the London Olympics might not throw up a story to re-ignite old fires. Whenever the Falklands is debated in popular discourse or tensions rise of the political front, football and sport is sure to follow.